Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I'm trying out a new font this morning. I am typing directly on the blog site instead of on gmail first and copying and pasting...just thought i'd see if it would save a little time. I don't know if you've noticed but i'm not posting as much as i used to. It's not because i don't want to, i just struggle with having the energy and ability to put my thoughts down when i get time to write at this season of my life. I am loving being able to be a "Mom" to Phillip, my friend Darlene's little guy for 9 hours a week. Darlene passed away almost a year ago, on the 30th of this month. I never dreamed i would get the privilege of picking up Phillip from school 3 days a week, eating popcorn and reading missionary stories after school, overseeing his chores, (he's a great little worker), and trying to keep up with him when he goes out to play with the neighborhood kids. He's a great natured little guy, like his Mom and Dad, and I thoroughly enjoy him. Last week at his school they invited the grandparents to come to their class room and honor them. Phillips grandparents all live in Georgia so he invited me to come in their place...he drew this great picture of me (gray hair and all, thanks Phillip!) and when i walked up to the room where he was waiting for me outside, his little face just lit up and he hugged me so tight. Yeah, i'm loving being his Mom and Grandmom
for a few hours a week!
 |
| Phillips picture of me for Grandparents Day! |
 |
| Phillip learning to clean out from under the lawn mower. |
Some of you have asked about an update on Dana and Zach. She was able to come home to Alabama with the baby for about 10 days and be with her family here. They were able to see Zach some, though i'm sure not nearly what they desired. It was very difficult for Dana to return to California and leave her son and her family where she feels safe. This was her post on FB on "Bring Zach Home," on Sept. 10
God, give me, please, enough strength to pass through this difficult period in my life;
I ask that amongst your busy schedules that you please pray for Zach, my family , and me. God is at work but I'm falling to pieces. Without him I don't know how I could handle this. God is, has, and will always be my guide Please take time to pray. God Bless you all.
Dana and Zach in Alabama
Please continue to pray for Dana, her husband whose trial should be coming up, for Zach, and all that GOD is doing in their lives through these "circumstances that GOD is orchestrating," as Oswald Chambers says.
This past week, Johnny and i have the wonderful and awesome privilege of driving out to Texas and attending the wedding of Russell Irby and his wife Chelsea. Russell is the son of David and Rhonda Irby who were among our dearest friends in Johnny's seminary days and still are our dearest friends from our seminary days.
 |
| Here is Rhonda with her son Russell...i honestly thought he was his Dad when i looked at this picture! |
As the LORD would have it, David and Rhonda, being from Georgia, never left the Ft. Worth area after seminary days, having moved 6 times, they still live in the Burleson area. Now they live two doors down from Rhonda's Mom and Dad who are also from Georgia. Rhonda's Mom and Dad moved to Texas shortly after David and Rhonda and Rhonda's Dad attended seminary too! We were all in the same Sunday School Class together at Travis Avenue Baptist Church, where Rhonda's Mom and Dad later became teachers. I will never forget the first Sunday we visited Travis, we got home from church, shortly afterwards, there was a knock on our apartment door. I opened the door and there was Tomi Lenamon, the Sunday School Director's wife with a birthday cake! She had noticed on the guest card i filled out in SS that it was my birthday and after church she went and bought me a birthday cake and brought it straight to me. We had only been in Texas a couple of weeks, and were a long way from home on my probably 24th birthday....to say her love and thoughtfulness made a huge impression, well it did.
At the wedding this past Sunday afternoon at Rose Chapel in Ft. Worth, Texas, we were so surprised to see our old Sunday School teachers there, Tomi and Joe Lenamon, and Bill and JoAnn Morgan. We actually got to see with Bill and JoAnn during the wedding and then afterwards, i got to sit right beside Tomi at the reception where we all sat around a big round table and reminisced about our seminary days.
 |
| Bill and JoAnn Morgan, Joe and Tomi Lenamon David and Rhonda Irby |
Tomi, with all her love and flambuoncy, has been pretty much homebound for a few years now, and EVERYONE was so glad to see her at the wedding. She is still a mess (in a good way), so funny, so full of love, and yet, she has this thorn in the flesh, the LORD uses to keep her close to HIS precious side. She and Joe now live in a retirement home after selling their beautiful home on a golf course that they use to share so very freely with us seminary students. Rhonda and i had the blessing of visiting Tomi and Joe a couple of years ago at ths,eir retirement place, and i kidded Tomi and told her it reminded me of a cruise ship with the fine china and dining room and all the they provide for them. Tomi, who makes the most of her opportunity wherever the LORD plants her, showed us around, and told us about the little old ladies that GOD has given her there to share CHRIST's love with and reach out to them. This past Sunday, Tomi told me she doesn't get out much now, even at the retirement home, but GOD does provide her with opportunities to reach out and build a friendship with a few of the "rich" older ladies who live there. She says these ladies are very educated, and you have to be a friend to them and love them to reach them for CHRIST. I'sm pretty sure that's what Tomi was doing way back when Johnny was in seminary and she brought that birthday cake to me...she was reaching out to us with the love of CHRIST, and we promptly joined Travis Avenue Baptist Church and their Sunday School Class! GOD grew that class to be very large with Tomi and Joe's love, Bill and JoAnn Morgan, Ron and Joann Waters, The Erwings, and the Pattersons. The main ingredients for a successful Sunday School Class was the Truth of GOD's WORD being taught, and a whole lot of HIS love being poured out upon us through those yielded vessels. We were only in the class for a year til the LORD led Johnny to be an assistant pastor at another church, but oh what a special year it was for us!
As we sat at the wedding reception, the reception cranked up around us with dancing, the first dance was Russell and his new bride, and then later Russell danced with his Mom to the song, "You are My Sunshine." It was so sweet.
We reminisced about those "good old days," and the wonderful memories that were made in that class. It was fun watching the grandmother's and mother's and aunts dancing together.
 |
| Rhonda and her sis in law's boogieing down at the reception...who says Baptist don't dance! |
We will never, never forget thee love that was poured out upon our lives through our wonderful teachers. Now, Bill and JoAnn Morgan teach an older couples class, and it has grown to be a huge size too. JoAnn has faithfully been the pastor's secretary at Travis Avenue for over 40 years and she told me at the wedding she is also the wedding coordinator for Travis Avenue! I thought how in the world do you do all that JoAnn with all the weddings they must have at that big church! Only the HOLY SPIRIT empowering and enabling Bill and JoAnn could they faithfully serve JESUS as they have for so long. JoAnn has the sweetest spirit and i will never forget one day in Sunday School her telling us about their 13 year old daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. Bill and JoAnn had gone to a staff meeting at church, while their daughter rode with another family somewhere. JoAnn said she put a bow in her daughter's hair and she was out the door. The next thing JoAnn knew was her daughter had been killed. Instead of growing bitter about their daughter's death, GOD grew Bill and JoAnn sweeter. I didn't know them then, but they are two of the kindest gentlest people i have ever know and GOD certainly has borne much fruit through their lives since HE took their little girl to heaven. JoAnn was responsible for me getting the Minister of Children's secretary's job when Johnny was in seminary. That was an interesting time as i got to see the behind the scenes affairs that go into making a big church run each week...I will always be very grateful for that experience.
As most of you know, after my husband finished seminary, he pastored 2 and a half years and we moved back to our home town with my health broken. It certainly wasn't what we had planned but it was GOD's plans and i am very thankful for HIS ways are higher than ours.
One of the amazing things the LORD has done through these plans is enabled me to go back to the Dallas area almost yearly for medical treatment and to see wonderful friends i have made there through the years. This trip was no exception as we combined the wedding trip with a visit with my doctor. We were able to spend a couple of hours with her after my appointment, and what a sweet time that was for me. I sure would have love to have felt better when i saw her, but that's what i was there for, and she has been such a channel of GOD's healing to me, and i thank GOD for her precious life.
I had the wonderful privilege of going to Prestonwood Baptist Church when we were out in Dallas last Sunday morning, another desire of my heart and blessing the LORD had for me on our trip out there. Last night i looked up the Prestonwood website and i came across a message from Shelia Walsh speaking to the Prestonwood Women at a Friendship dinner they had recently entitled, " GOD Loves Broken Ones, and Those Who Pretend they're Not." The title intrigued me. I watched the whole thing before i went to bed...way too late! It spoke to me so much, and i wanted to share it here with you. I hope you can carve some time out to listen and watch as Shelia humorously and very honestly shares:
http://www.prestonwood.org/am_cms_media/video-friendship-aug2012-swalsh.htm
We are all broken...we don't escape this life without brokeness. Whether that brokeness leads us closer to CHRIST and makes us sweeter, kinder, gentler like Bill and JoAnn Morgan when they lost their daughter, or whether it makes us bitter and hard depends on our relationship with our LORD JESUS WHO loves us so very much. HE desires so much for us to love HIM back that HE died for you and me on a wooden cross. HE constantly wooes us and wants our heart to be HIS for now and all eternity. If you've never trusted in CHRIST as your LORD and SAVIOR i invite you to do that right now...invite HIM into the brokenness of your life, your plans and dreams. HE longs to save you from your sins, and transform your brokenness into something more beautiful that you and i can ever imagine.
"A bruised reed HE will not break." Matt. 12:20
"The sacrifices of GOD are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O GOD, you will not despise." Ps. 51:17
"He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3
" Thus says the ONE WHO is high and lifted up, WHO inhabits eternity, WHOSE NAME is HOLY: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite." Is. 57: 15, 16
"I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak." Ez 34:16
"Behold, your GOD...He will come and save you." Isa. 35:4
GOD's promise to the Israelites in Isaiah 61:3 is HIS promise to HIS children now:
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,e
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
On the way home from Texas, i listened to a song called "She Loves the Broken Ones," sung by the Talley Trio. Dr. Henry works with the most difficult broken patients in the world and she labors long and hard to help us when other Doctors have failed. I want to be one who loves the broken ones. CHRIST has allowed my health to be broken so that HE can pour out HIS life through me to others who are broken in similar ways. In order to do that, my love has to be the love of the ONE WHO was BROKEN and Poured Out for me...apart from HIM i can't do anything. Please take time to listen to this beautiful song...and ask the LORD JESUS to give you HIS love for the Broken Ones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORD1kCCOe_E
What a dear blessing the LORD allowed us to be with our dear old friends this past weekend....Mr. and Mrs. Russell Irby have honeymooned in Miami this week and the Florida Keys before returning back to their new home in the Ft. Worth area and beginning their new life in CHRIST. The wedding reception was a ton of fun, and for just a little bit, i would have joined them...Grandma's and all out on the floor dancing!
 |
| David's Mom dancing with Rhonda and David's nephew who was in a wheelchair....so sweet and precious. |
Just as i was getting my nerve up join the dancing, Johnny said we needed to go....oh well, maybe next time:). I want to be like the Irby's and the Waters....still bearing fruit for CHRIST when i'm old...and still able to dance, in my brokenness, for JESUS!
Please remember our family in your prayers....JM is studying hard, and courting some on the weekends. I know he will be glad when Dec. comes and get his wife down there at school with him! HB is studying hard in nursing....both our Mom's just celebrated their birthdays and how i thank GOD for them and their precious lives they have laid down for us in their brokeness. I hit the big 50 a couple of weeks ago and thank GOD for HIS great faithfulness to carry and love me all these years. Tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. at FBC, Athens, i will began a new class and it will be incorporating so many of the things i have learned on my health journey with an emphasis on loosing weight. The name of the book is called "UltraMetabolism" by Dr. Mark Hyman, but i will be pulling in many other resources the LORD has used to help me. Just a note about the book. There are some mentions of evolution and i few other things that are unbiblical. Please be discerning as you read the book and i am not endorsing those false teachings. I do want to mention that David Irby's sis, Susan, has her own healthy cooking show out in California. I can tell you...she looks good...no cellulite on the back of her legs! You can check out her website at www.thebikinichef.com. I am planning to use some of her resources for our class, she has written seven books, and the last one is the Idiot's Guide to Quinoa...sounds like she was writing for me! I sure appreciate her gracious offer to be of help to us in any way she could...
I am still broken some in my health....and continuing to learn each day. Definitely the LORD has humbled me through this journey. In the midst of this journey the LORD has taught me so much about HIMself, how much HE loves me and you and the importance of caring for our temples from so many excellent resources. HE has also taught me that HE designed these bodies HE created to get well....and i'm on a mission to do that. I hope that you will come and join us....if you can't join us, please pray for us. Pray for me, as i depend on the LORD to help me gather my thoughts, and teach what HE wants to be taught. Most important, pray that CHRIST will love my class with HIS love through me. I learned that from some very dear Sunday School teachers-LOVE and sound teaching sure do go well together and enhance the learning process:).
 |
| Precious Memories, Precious Teachers, Precious Saints of the LORD! |
I love you and thank GOD for you all....
With all HIS love,
mitzi
No comments:
Post a Comment